CHAPTER XIX 



TREES AND SHRUBS FOR DIFFERENT FLOWERING 



EFFECTS 



PERHAPS the most important use of plants is for the effect of the 

 flowers. At least ninety per cent, of those who develop landscape 

 plantations have foremost in their minds the effect that is to be 

 produced by the flowers on the trees and shrubs grown in the 

 plantation, whether it be on a large estate or on a small home lot. 

 There are many other valuable characteristics, however, among 

 which are the fruiting and the foliage effects. All of these, however, 

 are entirely secondary to this one consideration concerning the 

 flowers. 



The first thought in the use of shrubs for this purpose is to obtain 

 flowers. It is only after some study and some thought on the subject 

 that one realizes that shrubs may be used for many different flowering 

 effects. We may use trees and shrubs to produce flowers at certain 

 definite seasons, or we may use trees and shrubs to produce flowers of 

 different colours at different seasons. The owner of the average home 

 occupies his residence throughout the entire year. There is a group 

 of people, however, owning both large and small homes, who occupy 

 two or more homes each year, depending upon the season. They 

 usually spend the spring and fall months at their residence, and hot 

 summer months at a country home, either at the seashore or among the 

 mountains. The first home owner must be provided with trees and 

 shrubs which will produce as nearly as possible a flowering effect 

 throughout the growing season, beginning with the shrubs which 

 produce flowers before the leaves appear, such as the golden bell and 

 the flowering plums, and ending with the shrubs such as altheas and the 

 hydrangeas which produce flowers in the summer months. The 

 family that occupies both a permanent residence and a country 

 home, however, must have trees and shrubs surrounding the former 

 which produce flowers during the spring and during the late summer 

 and fall months; and at their summer home they must have, so far as 



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